Rep. Thomas Massie says he’s back to work, will summon late wife’s ‘grace and patience’

Rep. Thomas Massie, R-KY, said Thursday he was returning to his congressional work two weeks after the passing of his wife, Rhonda Massie.

In a social media post, Massie begged for forgiveness for missing votes in Washington during his grieving process and said he was returning to his job this week.

“With Rhonda no longer with me, I will strive to summon the grace and patience and wisdom she quietly and selflessly dedicated to the effort of serving you,” Massie wrote.

The six-term congressman known for his acerbic libertarian ideology met Rhonda Massie in high school in Lewis County.

She was 51.

He did not elaborate any further on details surrounding her death, but thanked the more than 1,000 friends and family who attended her services or paid respects to her memory.

“I have accepted I can get through this but I will never get over this. I don’t ever want to lose her memory,” Massie said.

Massie also declared untrue a spate of “internet conspiracies about her death.”

“Without violating her privacy, I can dismiss some of those theories by disclosing: she did not take the COVID shots (we were both seropositive by the time they became available), our house is very secure, family was in the house the night she passed, and an autopsy has been conducted (we do not yet have results),” Massie wrote.

After “poring through hundreds of photographs of us since high school,” Massie joked, “the only credible conspiracy I can offer is a gorgeous girl who was a literal genius conspired to make a congressman, who would be steerable by no one but her, out of an awkward nerd by taking him as her boyfriend at age 16 and committing to decades of continuously molding him into something better.”

The couple was together 35 years and shared four kids.